Asslam-o-Alaikum,
It is stated that:
Under sharia, neither Qisas nor Tazir applies if a Muslim parent or grandparent kills their child or grandchild, or if the murder victim is a spouse with whom one has surviving children. The culprit can be, however, subject to Diyya (financial compensation) which is payable to the surviving heirs of the victims.
Question#1: Is this correct? How could there not be an application of Qisas or at the very least Tazir "if the murder victim is a spouse with whom one has surviving children"? Does it not contradict the divine Islamic laws?
Apparently, there is some degree of disagreement among the Sharia schools when the victim is the child:
The four major schools of Sunni sharia have been divided on applicability of Qisas when the victim is a child, and the father is the murderer. The Hanafi, Shafi'i and Hanbali Sunni sharias have ruled that Qisas does not apply, as has the Shia sharia doctrine. The Maliki school, however, has ruled that Qisas may be demanded by the mother if a father kills his son. The Hanafi, Hanbali and Shafi'i sharia extend this principle to cases when the victim is a child and the mother or grandparents are the murderers.
If I am not mistaken in my understanding of the above,
Question#2: How could the Hanafi, Hanbali, Shafi'i and Shia schools not apply Qisas when the father is the murderer?
And how could the Maliki school not apply Qisas when "mother or grandparents are the murderers"?
...Historically, sharia did not stipulate any punishment against the accused when the victim is the child or the spouse of the murderer, but in modern times some sharia-based Muslim countries have introduced laws that grant courts the discretion to impose imprisonment of the murderer. However, the victim's heirs have the right to waive Qisas, seek Diyat, or pardon the killer.
Question#3: Why did Sharia in the past not "stipulate any punishment against the accused when the victim is the child or the spouse of the murderer"?
Was this just a deficiency in the written formal law of the time and the jurists of those times failed to give the issue much importance? Or is there some wisdom in such an exemption?
From what I understand the modern Sharia laws stated above are much better in fulfilling the divine Islamic laws than the earlier ones.
Source for above quotes:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QisasI personally believe that the Wikipedia information is probably somewhat inaccurate as there are a few apparent discrepancies in it.
Regards
